Playoff hopes disappear with Union's loss to Kansas City

CHESTER — No fewer than three points, that was the imperative for the Philadelphia Union to keep their dim playoff hopes flickering as the MLS season reached its final weekend.

From the performance on the field, the win-or-go-home necessity wasn’t always obvious to the paid attendance at PPL Park.

There wasn’t much going right for the Union Saturday, and despite a brief fightback in the form of Jack McInerney’s 88th-minute goal, they saw their playoff chances officially extinguished by a stoppage-time goal by Lawrence Olum in a 2-1 loss to Sporting Kansas City.

In the quest for the win in the season finale, the Union (12-12-10, 46 points) did about everything they couldn’t afford to do. They came out slow, they gave up the first goal and they were forced to chase a game against a Sporting Kansas City team that had plenty to play for, and showed it.

While the Union looked for an unlikely face to step up and change the game, it was Olum who did just that for Kansas City (17-10-7, 58 points), which keeps the pressure on New York to win Sunday to decide the Eastern Conference title and the Supporters’ Shield for the top team in MLS.

Olum, a midfielder playing in his 20th game of the season, had managed no goals or assists and just five shots on goal all season. He set up the first goal, his flicked-on header of a Matt Besler throw-in nodded home by MLS All-Star Graham Zusi at the back post in the 46th minute, deflating the hopes the Union brought out of a scoreless first half.

“Giving up that goal early in the second half changes everything,” Union manager John Hackworth said. “So we had to give everything we had to get back in the game. The hard part of us is that a draw doesn’t do us any good. Ultimately, that left us very vulnerable in the back, and Sporting KC capitalized on it.”

Moments after McInerney finished his team-leading 12th goal of the season, latching onto Jeff Parke’s headed pass, Olum struck for the game winner in the second minute of stoppage time. Teal Bunbury found space in the left corner of the box, then squared a pass to Olum, who blasted it by a defenseless Zac MacMath for the game-winner.

In many ways, the final 10 minutes Saturday served as a microcosm for the Union’s 2013 season. They showed an ability to play with any team in the league and get results — like a win four weeks ago in Kansas City — that defied the expectations held for this team.

But they also showed an alarming propensity to play down to opposition, squander leads and fail to finish off teams when given chances. On balance, those problems are what decided the fate of the season.

“I would say that the expectation changed,” Hackworth said of a shift that occurred for a team in playoff position most of the season that finished seventh in the East. “We were playing well, but we were probably exceeding peoples’ expectations, but that probably gave people the idea that we were this high-flying team that had the ability to beat some of those teams, and we were. At the same time, it’s not like we changed much. You go on runs as a team where it’s tough to get goals, and we certainly had a stretch. But to our credit, we’ve recovered from that, but we’ve put in some performances at the end that we’ve had to. Unfortunately, it wasn’t good enough in the last five games.”

“It’s tough. We had a chance all the way through,” said Amobi Okugo, deputizing in the midfield for suspended captain Brian Carroll for the first time this season. “We had a chance to put away teams behind us all through the season and we failed to do that, and it caught up with us. Now we don’t have any more games left.”

The moves made by Hackworth Saturday didn’t have the desired effect. He started Kleberson for a third straight game, but he was withdrawn just after the hour mark for Roger Torres, who played the final 29 minutes after logging a mere 39 in the previous 33 league games. Both moves, which several weeks ago were equated with a sense of desperation Hackworth seemed unwilling to acknowledge, failed to change the game.

Hackworth also opted to give Antoine Hoppenot just his second start of the season, and while the forward provided plenty of running in his 61 minutes on the pitch, there was little in the way of offensive inventiveness.

“We said, we’re going to go out in a 4-3-3,” Hackworth said. “I think it surprised Kansas City, and to give Antoine that opportunity, I really thought we could maybe exploit his speed and have him stretch the defense. That worked. There’s some plays in there that Antoine during regular games and training he makes, and it just didn’t come off for him at times tonight. That was the thinking. Looking back on it, the first half, I think we got exactly what we wanted it from it.”

Ultimately, what the Union wanted was hope that Sunday’s results, namely losses by New England and Houston, could land them in the playoffs. That’s all academic, leaving the Union to consider where they went wrong.

“I can go back and circle a bunch of games that we should’ve won for whatever reason, games that we should’ve tied,” defender Sheanon Williams said. “But what good does that do? We’re still out. Next year.”

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NOTES: Williams, who slotted into the center of defense while Okugo stepped up into midfield, made his 100th MLS appearance with the Union, the first player in franchise history to hit that milestone. … In Carroll’s absence, Parke wore the captain’s armband for the first time as a member of the Union. … The Union became the fifth team in the last 14 years to go through an entire MLS season without being awarded a penalty kick. … Chris Albright was honored before the game for calling time on his 15-year MLS career. Albright, a native of Philadelphia, made 235 MLS appearances for five clubs, including 10 appearances over the last two seasons with the Union. The 34-year-old grad of Penn Charter was also capped 22 times by the U.S. National Team.